In a continuing effort to improve the quality of shipping fruits, I, the inventor, typically hybridize a large number of peach, nectarine, plum, apricot, and cherry seedlings each year. I also grow a lesser number of open pollinated seeds of each of these fruits, usually to capture recessive traits. The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of cherry tree, which has been denominated varietally as ‘Glenrock’. During the spring of 1990 I gathered fruit from several ‘Tulare’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 6,407) cherry trees located in my experimental orchard at Bradford Farms near Le Grand, Calif. in Merced County (San Joaquin Valley). The seeds from this fruit were removed, cracked, stratified, germinated, and grown as seedlings on their own root in my greenhouse, and upon reaching dormancy transplanted to a cultivated area of my experimental orchard described above. During the fruit evaluation season of 1995 I selected several cherry trees that exhibited desirable qualities. The present variety was selected as a single tree from the group described above. Subsequent to origination of the present variety of cherry tree, I asexually reproduced it by budding and grafting in the experimental orchard described. above, and such reproduction of plant and fruit characteristics were true to the original plant in all respects. The reproduction of the variety included the use of ‘Colt’ (unpatented) rootstock upon which the present variety was compatible and true to type.
The present variety is most similar to the ‘Glenred’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 12,859) cherry by producing cherries that are large in size, oblate in shape, firm in texture, dark red in skin color, red in flesh color, and sweet in flavor, but is distinguished therefrom and an improvement thereon by blooming about three days later, by producing cherries that ripen about nine days later, and by being a pollinator for both the ‘Glenred’ and ‘Tulare’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 6,407) cherries.